35 New ‘Today I Learned’ Facts That Prove It’s Never Too Late To Learn Something New
When browsing the internet, not only do we rarely learn anything, but we often also forget things. Think of our long-gone attention spans that social media has cut to the brim, and ask yourself when was the last time you scrolled through something seriously beneficial.
While you wonder, let me tell you there’s the internet’s beloved corner of Reddit which makes karma, or rather our brain levels, even because it actually teaches us something. We’re talking about the 'Today I Learned' online group that celebrates curiosity by sharing some of the most interesting and lesser-known things, facts, and bits of knowledge we all appreciate.
Today is the day for the newest TIL batch, so pull your seat closer and enjoy the ride without guilt. When you’re done, be sure to check our previous TIL features here, here, and here and be sure to share them with your friends!
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TIL that when Yoshitaro Shibasaki and his team completed their 1907 ascent of Mount Tsurugi — thought to be the final unclimbed mountain remaining in the Japanese archipelago — they found an ancient sword at the summit that was later determined to have been left there more than 1000 years earlier.
Or left it there before the mountain was formed and it just made its way to the top. Yes, it's a joke.
Load More Replies...I’m convinced that George Mallory and Sandy Irvine reached the summit of Mt Everest in 1927, when they failed to come back down. When they found his body in 1999, his clothing, personal items had been very well preserved, but there was one thing missing. A photograph of his wife that he intended to leave on the summit. Obviously it’s just speculation but I do think he made it.
A dragon carried it up there. Since the dragon flew, mountain was technically unclimbed.
I've always imagined a somewhat similar but fututistic scenario, with astronauts visiting Mars for the first time only to find something indicating there were prior visitors, like maybe remains of a spaceship scattered over the planet. And obviously I watch too many 1950s sci-fi movies lol
Somewhere on the planet, astronauts will find Kilroy was here.
Load More Replies...Or someone took a very old sword to the top a week before? Still a fun fact.
TIL: As far back as 1872, despite practically no women being allowed to vote, Victoria Woodhull of the Equal Rights Party became the first woman nominated for a US Presidential election. Frederick Douglass, a black abolitionist, was even chosen as her running mate
There is an awesome podcast episode about her. The podcast is called The History Chicks. They focus on biographies of famous women in history
voting was limited to landowners back then. You had to have title deed to land to get to vote. Yes, there was rampant discrimination against women & non-whites... So women landowners could vote if they lived where they would let you register to vote... Sharecroppers, renters, and the homeless could not vote even if white and male.
Her campaign was dogged by calls from ultra-conservatives demanding to see her emails.
America would have most likely been a much better place had this happened.
Because all women are saints and do no evil, right?
Load More Replies...I might be wrong or thinking of the wrong person, but I think the man who nominated her did is as a joke so it was especially funny because I think she ended up going on to hold some kind of office.
That's what I was going to say: it started as a joke, because why would anyone think a woman should be POTUS? So glad we've grown since- Oh. Wait.
Load More Replies...Still no woman President and the prospect seems as unlikely these days as 150 years ago.
I'm not surprised we had a black president first. I think a female isn't terribly far behind.
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TIL of Lauren Stratford (Wilson) who wrote a book claiming that she was in a Satanic cult in which she sacrificed her own child. After magazine reporters exposed her as never having a child, she changed her name and claimed to be a holocaust survivor, and was exposed again by the same magazine.
My church and school put us through the whole "Satanic panic" b.s in the 80s, too. They used to have assemblies to shame us for listening to non-Christian music, and would go through various genres and bands to tell us how the devil was "brainwashing" us with "backmasking" and we didn't even realize it. Why, one innocent listen to Prince or a New Wave band from England, and we'd end up murdering thousands in Satan's name without any control over the matter! Oh, hey, and it turned out that the "Satanic" abuse in the daycare was just another couple of "good Christians" being judgemental about someone with disabilities, go figure! This is the problem with "faith" as a value: it places your "gut feelings" and cognitive biases above, you know, actual facts.
Jan, I hope you don't mind me asking, what denomination/tradition did you grow up in? Because, it sounds beyond awful. Hope you're much happier now.
Load More Replies...The scariest thing about this is how many people there probably are out there doing the very same thing right now; deceiving strangers, associates & loved-ones alike. Mental illness is not something to be trifled with, that’s for sure. I pity anyone who thinks they have to make up wild stories just to feel adequate enough in life. 😥🧠🤷♀️
Sounds like the last that lied about being a victim of the twin towers on 9/11
TIL A company in the 90's made pencils with the anti-drug slogan "Too Cool to Do Drugs" but had to recall them because, when sharpened, they read "Do Drugs"
This is actually funny. I like how it seems like the message is giving up with the pencil.
That's why I never listen to pencils, they always give terrible advice.
I remember these. We were given them in school (Canada). We thought we were pretty cool.
Nope. Corporate execs worry about bonuses. They are not paid to think.
Load More Replies...I definitely remember those! We sort of laughed about them as then it pretty much reversed the original intention!
TIL George Lucas not only gave his blessing to make Spaceballs, he also handed the movie over to his effects company, Industrial Light and Magic, to provide the space effects and postproduction
Spaceballs the lunchbox, Spaceballs the colouring book, Spaceballs the breakfast cereal, Spaceballs the FLAMETHROWER! and my personal favourite, me "may the swartz be with ya!"
They didn't do it for the money. They did it for a s**t load of money
Load More Replies...Fun fact: In Italy the 1990 comedy "Martians Go Home" has been published as "Spaceballs 2"
Load More Replies...I really miss John Candy. He was a fellow Canadian and also such a great comedian, who passed away too early.
More like, back when Mel Brooks was actively making movies.
Load More Replies...I’ve lost the bleeps, I’ve lost the sweeps, and I’ve lost the creeps!
TIL The only children to survive the Titanic without a parent were two brothers aged 2 and 4. Their father kidnapped them from his ex-wife and boarded the ship with a fake name. The father didn’t survive and for weeks the boys were known as the Titanic Orphans until their mother was found.
Or lucky kids - to get away from their kidnaper, to survive, and to be able to eventually go back to their mother. Their story could've been much worse
Load More Replies...If the father was on the manifest under a false name, I wonder what kind of detective work it took to figure out who they were. Did the boys know enough about themselves and family (a lot of toddlers don't know Mom and Dad's names, they just know them as "Mom" and "Dad") to help figure it out? In 1912, the salient data would have been hard to find.
Newspaper photos. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Marcel_Navratil#:~:text=Michel%20Marcel%20Navratil%2C%20Jr.&text=He%2C%20along%20with%20his%20brother,Michel%20Navratil%20Jr.
Load More Replies...The mother might not have been the better parent.
Load More Replies...He did all of that devious work just to have them delivered right back to their mother.
Why is it that when a mother leaves with the children, people don't treat that as a kidnapping? People assume that the mother should have priority in custody when there is a breakup, which is wrong.
Load More Replies...Yeah, children were being abducted by a parent in the middle of a divorce in 1912. It feels like it’s something relatively new that happens, but turns out it’s not a new phenomenon at all.
Why is it that when women leave with the kids, people don't call it kidnapping? We shouldn't view this father more harshly than we do women who leave with the kids.
Load More Replies...At least finding their mother was made a priority, though probably mostly down to the hype with the news of the Titanic & getting the sympathy of every parent who heard about it in the news. I feel like if it weren’t such big news, if they weren’t the only children with no family close at hand & they weren’t so young to be left in such a dire situation; they probably would’ve been sent to an orphanage of some kind & gotten lost in the system. I hope for their sakes their mother was found speedily, that they were kept together & that they were well cared for until she was reunited with them. Children that young, to go through what they did … must’ve been petrifying for the both of them, bless. 😭💔👼
wait was the mom a bad mom? or did the dad just really love his kids? did they find out why he kidnapped the kids?
He was about to be declared bankrupt, so was probably fleeing his debt and didn't want to be permanently separated from his kids.
Load More Replies...Not true. Trevor Allison survived the sinking as an infant because his nurse panicked and took him immediately to a lifeboat without communicating that to his parents. So, Trevor's mom, dad and 4-year old sister Loraine died (she was the only child from 1st and 2nd class to not survive) searching the ship for him believing he was still on board. Sadly, he died of ptomaine poisoning when he was 18. :-(
TIL that a 2019 study showed that evening primrose plants can "hear" the sound of a buzzing bee nearby and produce sweeter nectar in response to it.
I wasn't told this by my parents when listening to the flowers-and-bees-story!
Well, now we know about the bees. Anything we need to know about the birds?
TIL US President John Adam’s beloved daughter Nabby developed breast cancer and underwent a complete mastectomy without anesthesia while strapped to a chair.
You can read on how she felt it as her first hand report. I did and I wish I hadn’t.
I haven't read her report. I'm not going to. Poor woman. I do know that they used to give some women hysterectomies without anesthesia. Because many doctors believed that women's reproductive organs caused mental illness. And they had zero regard for mentally ill people. Unfortunately, many women who were confined to sanatoriums, were not ill at all. They were sent there by fathers\husbands who considered them to be ill\abnormal because they spoke their minds and or didn't conform to proper womanly standards. Or because the husband wanted to be rid of a troublesome\inconvenient\rich wife. Therefore skipping a scandalous divorce. Just thinking of it makes me furious.
Load More Replies...I just read that she died less than a year after the surgery. New tumors developed on the scar tissue. This is horrific.
I just read 22 months on wikipedia. Operation was October 1811, she died August 1813.
Load More Replies...John Collins Warren (1778-1856) made history on October 16, 1846 with the first successful surgical procedure performed with anesthesia.
No anaesthetic whatsoever?! Omg. Just thinking about it, I’m getting flashbacks to a botched tooth-extraction I once had done (when I became totally immune to local anaesthetic & the dentist insisted on pulling the tooth anyway) … I mean, holy jeez! They could’ve at least tried to dull her senses some other way, even getting her inebriated on booze beforehand would’ve been a small mercy, FFS. To hack-off her breasts with absolutely nothing to dull the pain is just cruel human torture! 😭
Do you have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome? It causes resistance to local anastetic. Many, including myself remember the pain of getting teeth pulled
Load More Replies...In those times Women where seen as “ Week and Delicate “…. Wow!!! Women gives birth without anesthesia all over the World. The Strongest Pressure & Pain U Can put a Body💪🏼 Sience show Men would’nt survive that. They don’t have the same nervesystem. I’m quite shure that the reason She made it throug that masectomy without any anesthesia is because She was a Woman!💪🏼🙏🏻
I hope they at least let her drink some whiskey or something to take the edge off—-doubt that’s possible but at least she’d have been somewhat relaxed.
TIL in 1983, NFL Chiefs running back Joe Delaney sacrificed his life in an attempt to save three children from drowning. His number is unofficially retired by the team and a statue was put up in his hometown.
I just read that Delaney couldn't swim but attempted to rescue them anyway. Wow, just wow. Very tragic.
It gets worse, only one kid survived. I'm sorry for commenting that but it's a sad and true fact.
Load More Replies...TIL Baseball player Al "The Hebrew Hammer" Rosen was an amateur boxer and known for challenging anyone who insulted his heritage, or used anti-Semitic slurs, to fight. His stated preferred method for dealing with anti-Semitism was to 'Flatten them'.
TIL the boy whose exorcism was the inspiration behind The Exorcist grew up to be a NASA engineer. His work contributed to the Apollo mission in the '60s.
Ronald Edwin Hunkeler. The book and movie are (very) loosely based on his story. He was a spoiled kid with a strict mother in a very religious family: neighbors and other witness at the time said the mother was "[manipulating his] beliefs, turning to trickery to get her to take him out of school for a while". He later admitted it was all set up for show and attention. Went on to become an engineer and worked on the Space Shuttle Thermal Shield, but lived a troubled life both on the job and in the family. Died in 2020.
So was it the boy who got us to outer space or the demon from the failed exorcism
TIL, despite its vastness, it only takes 39-40 digits of pi to calculate the size of the observable universe to an accuracy of 1 hydrogen atom. Because of this, NASA uses only 15 digits of pi in even their highest accuracy calculations.
We gave that pie plate to our youngest child after they memorized pi to 100 places. I'm not sure it's ever been used for a pie.
Ok that's cool I guess. Congrats on your kid memorizing 100 digits of pi.
Load More Replies...They (scientists) had a whole race. One guy even spent 27 years and some one still beat him
TIL that Hormel Foods keeps a file of hatemail they've received from American soldiers who had to eat the notorious food product while at war overseas
Yep!! When my dad was in the Air Force and were living on an American base in Germany he would bring home MRE's for us to try. God Awful stuff haha But we learned not to complain so much about mom's cooking while he was gone :P
Load More Replies...True story. I went to work at a grocery store. All throughout the day there was this horrifying smell of rot, and no one could find its source. Of course, I found it. It was a hormel dinner. It was so rotted that maggots were popping out of the casing. I made my boss take a good whiff then tossed it. I will never eat one of those things, never.
At least the the presence of maggots indicates it's real food though.
Load More Replies...Everyone I served with had their favorite. Mine was scalloped potatos and ham.
Load More Replies...Them little meals right there ant the best. There actually kinda nasty but food is food. I am sorry to any vets that had to eat this you deserved better, you truly did. And I am sorry.
Old time vet, I even liked C Rations. And Spam is practically the official food of Hawaii.
TIL French secret service agents bombed the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior in order to stop Greenpeace from disrupting underwater nuclear testing in 1985.
An act of terrorism for which they have not been properly held to account.
Hind sight is 20/20. If true the French probably thought they could do it with our killing anyone. The first explosion “should” have caused everyone to evacuate. (You normally do not return to a sinking ship or a house that is burning. Especially not for a camera.) but it sadly did happen. Although it was a Cold War, it was a war. Militaries conducted the tests to not only develop more controllable weapons but to deter hostile nations. War is never without unintended casualties. The goal is to reduce casualties of non-belligerents. It’s possible more protesters would have died had they gotten too close to the testing site and the test was not halted. Given what was involved and at stake, they probably wouldn’t have halted the test. Remember back then everyone believed nuclear war was eminent and tests like these was a way to show the enemy that attack would lead to retaliation in hope of postponing the inevitable.
Load More Replies...Like a lot of Aucklanders, I went down to see it half sunken as in the photo. The French eventually weaselled out of the deal they made. Greenpeace was not stopped.
Good for Greenpeace, and shame on Les Grenouilles!
Load More Replies...They have most of the guns. Government isn't by consent, but by coercion.
Load More Replies...Ferdinand Pereira a photographer died trying to retrieve his camera. The theory was that the bombers set two charges several minutes apart to give time for the crew to evacuate but many returned, after the first, thinking the danger was over
This was a HUGE story at the time, and still lives in infamy in the UK at least.
2004 : British troops torturing and sexually abusing Iraqi prisoners of war. Those photographs, published by the Sun, showed Iraqi prisoners strung up in a net from a fork lift truck. the Royal Military Police had found a video of people throwing prisoners off a bridge. It wasn’t ‘Don’t do it’ or ‘Stop it.’ It was ‘Get rid of it.’” On May 3, Amnesty International announced that it had uncovered a “pattern of torture” of Iraqi prisoners by US and UK coalition troops." Speaking of infamy NOBODY'S PERFECT !
Load More Replies...There are French graveyards full of NZ war dead. This is how France repaid us. In what must be the most belated apology ever, the French president basically said he had no idea what the secret service did as they were a law to themselves
sorry but the french are not responsible for "the NZ war dead" : UK is ! since they got you involved in the war ! the french graveyards are also full of ONE MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND "french dead " (and that's only the soldiers !). but that doesn't change the fact that what the french secret service did was pretty bad. I was really mad at the time . sorry for that ! signed : a frenchman
Load More Replies...Maybe it's because I was a kid in NZ at the time that I know about it, but since leaving NZ 30 years ago I think I've only heard about it once or twice.
Kid in Germany. It was big in the news and though i didn't read or watched news much at the time, i still knew about it.
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TIL that there are around 50-60 blue faience hippopotamus statuettes that survived from Ancient Egypt. Due to the danger hippos posed in the wild, they often snapped off the legs of hippopotamus statuettes before placing them in tombs, so the hippos wouldn’t be able to eat the soul of the deceased.
Technically they could still eat them… it would just be more difficult
Is this an actual photo of the statuette? It's gorgeous! It's jaw-dropping how talented the Egyptians were at colouring things. The pigment is still so vivid!
Yes! I've actually seen one of these at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It inspired me to create a hippopotamus box out of clay for a ceramics class at college. A white egret was the lid handle.
Load More Replies...My thought exactly. Imagine a hippoless afterlife though
Load More Replies...TIL Tom Dolan, despite having both exercise induced asthma and a narrow trachea giving him access to only about 20 percent of the air an average person breath—was at one time considered the best swimmer in the world and is a two time Olympic gold medalist and world record holder.
Just guessing but having access to such a low percentage of air on the regular probably made him used to holding his breath more than the average person so he was probably able to swim underwater longer with less stops to come up for air.
Load More Replies...So…..his oxygen saturation was…..20% ??? I am looking this story up for more details!
Weird. I thought Michael Phelps had some reduced airway capacity as well. Maybe I mixed them up
TIL Episodes Five and Ten of 1960s Doctor Who story The Daleks' Master Plan were long considered missing until they were found in the basement of a Mormon church in Wandsworth. Nobody has found out how they got there.
There were whole seasons of Doctor Who that were thrown out or taped over when the BBC did a clean out. Some have been remastered using the audio track and animation.
Not just Dr Who, and not just the BBC. Tons of early TV shows from Britain and America were lost this way. Tape was expensive and old shows just weren't considered worth saving, Same thing happened to early movies. It's estimated that 80-90% of films made before 1929 are lost.
Load More Replies...I knew Dr Who had been around for a long time but didn't realise its been around since the 60s.
I have absolutely no idea who in the world is downvoting you, Foxxy. Another fun little fact is that Dr.Who was originally supposed to have an educational slant...I don't think that lasted very long though.
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TIL that during World War II, the United States published a spy manual urging middle managers in enemy territory to sabotage their employers by bringing up irrelevant issues, promoting bad workers, haggling over petty details, and holding unnecessary meetings.
There must be a lot of managers who believe they are in enemy territory. 😁
Still in use and a required part of the curriculum for Business majors, apparently.
Makes you wonder about those foreign business practices that American businesses love to adopt.
TIL of the ancient Greek athlete Theagenes. After his death, a rival athlete who held a grudge would beat his statue. The statue fell on his rival, killing him. It was then put on trial, convicted of murder and was exiled by being thrown into the sea.
So people back then were really bored and really dumb. Oh wait, they still are.
You should hear about the poor monkey, that was the only survivor from a French frigate off the coast of Hartlepool here in the UK. Was captured, accused of being a French spy. Put on trial in court. Was found guilty and hung. Now it’s been immortalised as the mascot for the local football teal. Hartlepool United!
Load More Replies...I saw this on another BP list a while ago: some time later there was a famine and the Oracle of Delphi said it wouldn't end until the statue was returned, so someone had to go and get it back from the ocean. Whether that ended the famine as promised I have no idea.
Yes! I was hoping someone would mention the other half of the story!
Load More Replies...Of course. They wouldn't just throw it in the sea without due process. That would be ridiculous!
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TIL about corn sweat, where corn plants release water into the air. One acre of corn can release 3,000-4,000 gallons of water per day, and can raise the humidity level up to 10%.
In Abu Dhabi, they planted many, many trees and made significant changes to the temperature and local atmosphere. Potentially this is a way to reduce global warming. Plant more trees!!!
The same process is why the Smoky Mountains are smoky. The volatile organic compounds in the millions of trees on the mountain tops release water vapor, or sweat, and it forms a cloud that hangs over mountains.
Thats like how the Blue mountains in Australia are blue. Eucalyptus oil droplets emitted from the forests combine with dust particles and water vapour, scattering short wavelength rays of light which are predominantly blue in colour.
Load More Replies...If you've ever grabbed an ear of corn right off the stalk and peel it, water drips everywhere. It's like you dipped in a bucket of water...
TIL that SNL called Phil Hartman "The Glue" because his professionalism and comedy skills held together so many sketches
I've always considered Phil Hartman to be the "Glue Guy" of NewsRadio because he kept that show together.
His contribution to the Simpsons is unforgettable as well. I really miss the characters he brought to life and every now and again will play my downloaded copy of Dr. Zaius.
Troy McClure, you may remember me from commenting on articles about cats making cheese, and are giraffes just really three gazelles in a giraffe coat?, was a one of a kind character that has been so noticeably missed.
Load More Replies...He was a graphic designer before he became an improv comedian. He designed a couple Poco covers and a logo for Crosby Stills Nash and Young!
Phil Hartman was one of my all time favorite comedians and actors. I still miss him and the characters he played.
That gutted me. My dad met him when he was a writer on Pee Wee's Big Adventure (dad was the Production Designer) and said that Phil was a gem of a human being.
TIL in 2009 British people rebelled against the ongoing trend of X Factor victors winning Christmas number one by purchasing copies of Rage Against the Machine
Ok. So every year in Britain, it's a pretty big deal as to which band holds the #1 hit on the music charts. For years, because of the timing of the X-Factor tv show, some pop garbage from the X-Factor topped the British charts at Christmas each year. Starting as a joke in whatever year it was, ppl decided to purchase copies of Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine instead and try to get that to #1. The band heard about it and said that if it happened, they'd throw a free show in London as a thank-you, and that the et were donating all the sales to a British Shelter charity. Lo and behold, Bulls on Parade wins the #1 place on the British charts for Christmas. The following summer, Rage played a huge, free concert in Hyde Park (I think). I was there and it was amazing.
No, the Xmas #1 by Rage Against the Machine was Killing in the Name. I have no idea why everyone keeps referring to this other song.
Load More Replies...Now it's Ladbaby. They have had Christmas number 1 for few years now. They do donate all profits from the downloads to the Trussel Trust, a food bank. So it's for a good cause, even if all the songs are about sausage rolls.
Yeah this made no sense to me. Maybe because I'm American?
Load More Replies...I feel really old now, I didn't realise it was way back in 2009....thought it was alot more recent!
However Simon Cowel, who practically directed X Factor was the one that signed the band and therefore profited off of the "rebellion", and was most likely the person to set it up.
He resurfaced recently on some TV interview and explained why he didn't really make a go of his career. Can't remember the reasons
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TIL The professional bowler Chris Barnes once beat a robot optimized to throw strikes
Hey they don't say "how" he beat it lol
Load More Replies...Just in case anyone wanted to know how he beat it, the robot kept on throwing the ball the same way every time which moved the oil off the lane. Chris was able to make tiny adjustments every time so that the oil worked with him. I think that's how, it's been a minute since I watched it.
Well they didn't clarify if it was a game they're were talking about...
It was a good design, but the robot couldn't make the tiny adjustments needed to account for the oil on the lane like Chris could. Freshly oiled lane the robot was perfect, but got worse as the game went on and the oil wore off in areas.
Load More Replies...So would any of the tens of thousands of people who've bowled a perfect game
TIL that dandelions are edible and are actually really nutritious and can be eaten raw
I would only use young plants though, bigger and darker leaves taste very bitter.
As soon as they start to bloom the get bitter, so only use the very young leaves in spring.
Load More Replies...The French for dandelion is pissenlit, which literally means "pee the bed".
And the name dandelion comes from the french dent de leon, which means lion''s tooth. German name means the same.
Load More Replies...They are. An older name for dandelion is "p**s-a-bed", for it's diuretic effect. The leaves, flowers and roots are edible!
Load More Replies...The whole dandelion plant family is edible and nutritious. Puha is a Maori favourite with pork bones which is almost exactly like cicoria beloved by southern Italians who like it with fave (broad beans) or pork bones. Dandelion leaves are also nice in salad.
Do not eat if you have a latex allergy. Dandelion greens make my cheeks swell up like a chipmunk. That white sap that leaks out when you pick them is latex
There are something like 15 thousand edible plants on Earth. Humans only eat something like 2000 of them. (My figures could be off; this is from memory.)
And the roots can be roasted and made into a string cleansing tea, dark and coffee-like. I actually make weak coffee and add roasted dandelion root tea to it every morning. Not too acidic, and a delicious complex roasted flavor.
They're good, but remember that some people are allergic so if you're not sure, do a skin test first! I'm not sure about this, but might be that dandelion and mugwort allergies go together...
TIL traditional grass lawns originated as a status symbol for the wealthy. Neatly cut lawns used solely for aesthetics became a status symbol as it demonstrated that the owner could afford to maintain grass that didn’t serve purposes of food production.
I think those are golf courses, fun fact, golf courses take up more land than housing in the uk
Load More Replies...My husband and I like to have lots of diversity in our "lawn". If it's green (clover, dandelions, etc), they can stay! The bees LOVE it :-)
Same with my husband and me. Our neighbors hate us for it to the point one came over and mowed down a patch of clover I left for the bees. I was so mad!
Load More Replies...Now it's the most cultivated (and useless) crop grown in the US. Plus, it's super inefficient to water. So... yay for us?
Lawns don't have to be a monoculture though. Ours has many things interspaced with the grass- moss, dandelions, speedwell, mouse-ear, clover. We use ours for many things too, as a space to chill and relax, eat, dry our laundry, and graze our guinea pigs. The boarders at the edge host fruit trees and flowers.
I walk dogs in a wealthy neighborhood in the US. Most of the homes have lawns that are as perfect as a putting green. So. Damn. Boring! And such a waste of water. In the two years I’ve been working in that neighborhood I’ve managed to get through a whole 30 minute walk just twice without being surrounded by the sound of leaf blowers.
TIL Story Musgrave is the most formally educated astronaut with seven academic degrees and only astronaut to have flown on all five space shuttles.
TIL Consumers lose $3 billion a year in unspent gift cards, with starbucks itself having $140 million in unused gift cards.
What is criminal is putting expiry dates on the gift cards. There is no expiry date on banknotes - even when they are superceded and cannot be spent in shops any more, they can still be taken to a bank to get a replacement.
In the EU they HAVE to accept expired gift cards. Still, shops print expiry dates on gift cards, I guess in the hope that customers will throw them away. Rule of thumb: if it was purchased with money it does not expire.
Load More Replies...This is the whole point of gift cards, the companies are betting that a reasonable percentage of people will never use them, so, free money for the company.
I stopped buying gift cards years ago, because of this, also because it forces people to go to a specific shop to get their present. Instead I just give people cash. Way simpler, way less hassle.
Such a scam. Companies know you won't bother to spend the last $2.23 on the card.
Not legal in Canada. Can't charge fees or have an expiry date. F**k the United States and their greedy companies.
Actually the shopping mall in my hometown deducts a certain amount of money each year that the gift card isn't used, so eventually they are emptied. A girl found that out the hard way when she saved a bunch to buy a specific item (I guess and expensive item) and a lot of them were empty or almost empty. So there is a way around that law I suppose. That should be illegal too though, they already got the cash for the cards!
Load More Replies...Gift cards don't have expiration dates in the US anymore. However, a lot of them do have conditions where if you've had them and not used them in over a year, they start having "service fees" taken out. My boss once gave me a gift card as a kind of "reward" for working through lunch to help someone out. She'd had the card in her desk for 18 months. There was no money left on it.
Not surprised by Starbucks - other than "status" value, it really isn't that good.
TIL Quentin Tarantino directed an episode of CSI in 2005 after word of him being a fan of the show got back to the show's producers.
Curious to see which episode it is. Does it revolve around a maniac foot fetishist by any chance?
No it’s the one where one of them gets buried alive in a box. Apologies I can’t remember the series number or episode!
Load More Replies...Like with Kate Bush and Stranger Things. To extremely rare that she allows her music to be used in tv or films. But she’s a massive fan of the show, she said yes immediately when they asked her, and she’s just had two weeks back at Number 1 in the UK, and her first ever Top 10 hit in the US!!
He did an episode of ER back in the day as well. I remember it as being more gory than usual. It was a Halloween episode. Halloween Saturday Night or something like that.
I'm surprised no one pointed out that the casket scene was filmed the same way and looked a lot like the scene in Kill Bill where Uma's character is buried alive and breaks the casket... I thought it was pretty lazy on Tantantino's part to reuse the same scene, more or less.
He's done that before- reaching out to tv shows he likes to see about writing. He loved Alias so much back in the 2000s and wanted to write an episode but there was some kind of issue with the WGA allowing him to do it for the network, so JJ Abrams wrote a part for him to act in instead, and it was great. It ended up being a 2 part episode and he made a cameo a few seasons later. It was a lot of fun.
That's ok. Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker from Star Trek: Next Gen) directed and episode of Castle that involved a Nebula Nine coordinator being the murder victim at a comicon convention. He even appeared in the beginning spouting he was Castle's "Number One Fan!" He also directed an episode of Leverage in which he appeared as a patient with a neck brace on waiting in the ER.
It was a very weird episode where all the characters behaved and spoke in ways that were, er, uncharacteristic.
TIL that the surgeon August Bier tested on his own assistant a form of anesthesia consisting of injecting cocaine directly into the spine, and to check how effective it was, he stuck a needle in his leg, hit him in the shins with a hammer, ripped off his pubic hair and even squeezed his testicles.
So... boss, what are we up to today? What do you mean do I have pubic hair?
The testicle squeezing was not part of the test protocol. That was extra.
Test protocol? It seemed a pretty random venture the moment Mr Bier got the hammer out.. Actually, 🤔.. the moment he got the needle out.. 😅
Load More Replies...Doesn't say that the assistant beat the s**t out of him after that cause the shot didn't work.
TIL that Sigmund Freud was a Cocaine Addict, and he personally prescribed it to his wife and friends
Yeah, and you also should see his works in that light. Easy to see d***s everywhere when you're constantly doped up on coke.
Spot on, I am a Carl Jung disciple all the way. Freud reeks of sexually repressed projectionism.
Load More Replies...Opioid/painkiller addiction was a common thing pre-WWII, too. People you wouldn't expect, like LM Montgomery, Ben Franklin, silent film-era actors, all were addicted to injecting opioids to manage pain. The military has relied on opioids for soldiers since the Civil War.
And speed. PBS did a Secrets Of The Dead episode about the military dosing soldiers and pilots with it during WWII.
Load More Replies...This is not surprising since laudanum, which I'm pretty sure was alcohol mixed with morphine, was readily available and widely used. For pain management, insomnia, etc. So, basically addicts everywhere.
How many Freudians does it take to change a lighbulb? Two - one two change the bulb, and one to hold the penis.
Load More Replies...Um, wasn't everyone addicted to cocaine in Victorian/Edwardian times? They put it in everything and took it to cure everything.
And an opium addict as well... Which was pretty damn obvious in some of his texts.
TIL in 1962 boxer Emile Griffith fought Welterweight Champion Benny Paret. At the weigh-in, Paret infuriated Griffith, a bisexual man, by touching his buttocks and making a homophobic slur. Griffith won the bout by knockout; Paret never recovered consciousness and died in the hospital 10 days later.
Ah yes, the only time you get praised for beating the hooraw out of another person, and paid for it.
Esmarelda Villalobos wants to know: “What does what feel like?” “ Killing a man. Beating another man to death with your bare hands.”
Those were the days. Now we have men beating women in the ring and getting praised for doing it....
TIL the original version of The Game of Life had a suicide square
someoone should created another best comments on bored panda page again
TIL of the Fontana delle Tette in Treviso, North Italy, a XVI century topless statue of a woman sprinkling water from each nipple. During celebrations, it spouts red and white wine, free to drink.
Unfortunately the original statue has been severely damaged by Napoleonic soldiers, and the reconstruction that was built in 1989 only spouts water.
If wine is coming out of your nipples, it's either a miracle or something you should immediately consult your doctor about.
True, I actually saw this one last year! And there was the original and another as well around a couple of corners.
TIL that the highest-ranking US military officer of Vietnamese descent is the only survivor of a family whose killer was photographed being shot in the head in a Pulitzer-winning photograph.
Nguyễn Văn Lém was a member of the Viet Cong. He was executed in Saigon during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. Before being captured, Lém had allegedly murdered Lt. Col. Tuan as well as Tuan's wife, six children, and his 80-year-old mother. Lém was brought to a South Vietnamese brigadier who then executed him. The event was witnessed and recorded Eddie Adams, an AP photographer. The photograph won Adams the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography.
The officer who shot him was a life long friend of Tuan.
Load More Replies...Wow, I had to read, re-read, read again, and again, and one more time, the post and comments before I could get my head around what the post meant.
Huan Nguyen was born in 1958 or 1959 in Huế, South Vietnam. His father was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. During the Tet Offensive of 1968, Nguyen's parents and six siblings were killed at their Saigon-area home by Viet Cong guerrillas. Shot in the arm, thigh, and skull, nine-year-old Nguyen stayed in the house for two hours—while his mother bled to death—and then escaped after dark.
its one of the most famous pictures in history https://pierpaoloferlaino.medium.com/the-execution-of-nguy%E1%BB%85n-v%C4%83n-l%C3%A9m-71c197af69b0
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TIL When Emperor Nero got his mistress pregnant, he divorced and banished his wife Octavia. When this led to a public outcry, he instead had her executed.
Claudia Octavia was a people's princess of her time. When Nero divorced her, one of his reasons was accusing her of sterility and that she would be unable to produce him an heir. Later, her execution charges listed her having an affair with a musician from Alexandria and having an abortion to cover it up, even though he previously accused her of being infertile. She was 22 at the oldest when she died.
Nero is the indirect reason to how the Coliseum got its name. Previous on that site, Nero had commissioned an extremely large statue of himself to be put there. Colossal even.
TIL There is no difference between “saltwater” taffy and regular taffy. It is simply a marketing gimmick in coastal regions with origins in Atlantic City
Can anyone explain to me why americans call it taffy instead of toffee like normal people?
Because taffy and toffee, in the US are different products. Taffy doesn't use use same recipe as toffee. Taffy isn't cooked to as high of a temp as toffee. Taffy is "pulled" (continually stretched) to aerate it. Taffy is soft and chewable. Toffee is more solid and harder. Taffy can be of myriad flavors. Toffee is toffee flavored.
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TIL that the Capitol was designed to have George Washington's tomb on public display. Both houses passed bills saying he should be buried there, and his wife consented, but due to various delays it took until 1830 for it to be viable. After an attempted theft of his head, the project was cancelled.
While Washington is lauded for may actions he took to create the US, treating him as the lone point of idolatry minimizes the efforts others put forth. It wasn't a single man that created the US. As well, to me, it would take away from the creation (the USA) and make the man more the focus. He is to be honored for his efforts but I suspect even he would prefer we celebrate the country more than the men who created it. We separated England to escape a king. Creating a pseudo king would be an insult.
I've been to his tomb. It's sad how they pushed Martha into the corner and almost out of view. Otherwise it is quite beautiful.
Nearly 100 years later, the Russians realized they could try it too
TIL that the Ignalina nuclear power plant located in eastern Lithuania is identical to the Chernobyl plant in Pripyat. The plant remained operational until 2009 and was used as the set for the HBO Chernobyl miniseries.
The fatal flaw of the Chernobyl plant was that there were carbon end-caps on the reactor rods. If it hadn't been for those, there would have been no accident. Maybe the one in Lithuania didn't have those, and even if it did, once they knew what happened in Chernobyl to cause the end-caps to fail, they could simply not do that. Chernobyl only had a meltdown because they were in the middle of performing tests which stressed the system in ways that aren't normal for everyday operation.
Ignalina was retrofitted after the Chernobyl. Chernobyl didn’t have a critical excursion and meltdown “only” because they were performing tests; the RBMK reactors had a design flaw that were later retrofitted in (afaik) most of the remaining RBMK reactors, some of which still operate today.
Load More Replies...I did a paper on Chernobyl for a rhetoric class a while back. Never came across that. Chernobyl had several issues that lead to the disaster so it is possible that the Lithuania reactor dodged some of those. That reactor type lends to a positive feedback loop. Also the roof is a weak point because that is the control area that fuel rods can be lifted and dropped from. There is no shielding there. Those things can't be avoided. Chernobyl was also a rushed build with inferior quality materials. During the test the caused the incident one source said they couldn't reopen a valve when there was an emergency. If you read up on the events, too many teams were involved, too many safey systems were shut off and protocols breached. It was like the left hand didn't know what the right was doing. Given that, I can see how Lithuania survived.
Ignalina was retrofitted after the Chernobyl disaster to prevent the literal cause of the Chernobyl disaster, so the Lithuanian plant cannot be said to have “dodged” anything. I’m also unsure where you sourced your paper from, as it is a myth that the Chernobyl plant was built with “inferior quality materials” and/or was “rushed”. The disaster was due to an inherent flaw in RBMK reactor design combined with human error, not because of “inferior quality materials”.
Load More Replies...and they consistently refused to shut it down when asked by the scandinavians, because the baltics are westerners with russia and soviets with anyone else.
what I heard is that shutting it down would cause a massive raise in electricity prices throughout Lithuania while getting a whole little town jobless at once
Load More Replies...TIL that the first documented mention of adults playing cricket came from 1611, when two men were fined 12d each for failing to attend church on Easter Sunday because they were playing cricket.
I would rather play cricket than go to church, and I don't know how to play cricket.
I assure you even though cricket is as boring as watching paint dry, it's still more exciting than church of england.
Load More Replies...I saw a joke in the british museum once which alleged that dinosaurs died of boredom. The cartoon shows them with cricket gear.
TIL that the packaging colour for air-dropped humanitarian ration packs had to be changed from yellow to salmon after someone realised that the same shade of yellow was also used for air-dropped cluster bombs.
TIL about Louis Remme, who rode on horseback nonstop from Sacramento to Portland in 1855, racing against the ship-borne news of a bank run that would prevent him from withdrawing his own money
Just for resolution. It was a 143 hour ride and he successfully beat the ship by a matter of minutes. http://www.lrgaf.org/journeys/remme.htm
TIL that the largest pyramid in the world is located in Mexico, not in Egypt. The Great Pyramid of Tepanapa has a base four times the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
But it's only 25 meters high, compared to Giza's 150. Giza pyramid has more than three times the volume of the mexican one.
They probably understood that that much weight probably couldn't be sustained by the foundation. This is why in Egypt there is a bent pyramid. They found out it was too heavy more than half way through.
Load More Replies...TIL That "Barker’s Beauties," the models on The Price is Right, did not have contracts, but were were rehired on a week-to-week basis to keep their salaries low.
TIL Roughly 2.5 billion people watched princess Diana’s funeral in 1997. At its height the queue to reach the book of condolences took 6.5 hours. The queen gave her first live broadcast in 50 years
After having spent months harassing and bullying Diana the newspapers changed their tune as soon as she died. Everyone seems to have forgotten just how badly she was treated. It reminds me of how the British press treats Meghan now..
I can't imagine the psychological horrors Harry has to go through, seeing his wife shredded in the press the same way his mother was. Don't blame 'em for leaving. The British press = monsters.
Load More Replies...I was 10 when she died. I remember my mom waking us up really early and sitting us in front of the TV to watch, even though I had no idea why. She said, "this is history, one day you'll remember, even if you don't understand it right now." She was right.
I was 7. It is the first news story I remember watching. I had never heard of until then :)
Load More Replies...When a member of the family dies, most people have other things to deal with and process rather than immediately going on national television.
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TIL that Pres. George HW Bush vomited on the lap of Japanese PM Kiichi Miyazawa during a 1992 state banquet. The incident caused a wave of late night TV jokes & ridicule, even coining Busshu-suru meaning "to do the Bush thing or bushing it". It was also spoofed in the film "Hot Shots! Part Deux."
Looking like in the photo Barbara is wiping Bush's mush. Can't remember who came up with it, but we used to use Barbara as rhyming slang for a lady-garden.
“Lady Garden” is one of the worst damned euphemisms I’ve ever heard.
Load More Replies...TIL that in 1961, Thomas Monaghan got half-ownership of "Domino's", now one of the largest pizza companies in the world. All he had to give in return was his used Volkswagen Beetle car.
TIL that "American cheese" is a combination of cheddar, Colby, washed curd, or granular cheeses. By federal law, it must be labeled "process American cheese" if made of more than one cheese or "process American cheese food" if it's at least 51% cheese but contains other specific dairy ingredients.
There’s a huge difference between Kraft American cheese food product the disgusting plastic wrapped “singles” most people are familiar with and American Cheese made by a reputable brand like Boars Head which is quite good. But like many things in America most people are only familiar with the absolute cheapest, awful, mass produced junk food variety.
It is totally tasteless but somehow looks very appetizing. Kind of fascinating.
Kraft singles is an entirely different product from what we consider American Cheese here is the US. American cheese bought sliced at a deli is quite good and contains: Cultured Pasteurized Milk And Skim Milk, Buttermilk, Milkfat, Salt, Contains Less Than 2% Of Sodium, Potassium Phosphates, Tricalcium Phosphate, Lactic Acid, Milk Protein Concentrate, Enzymes.
Also Has Cellulose ".....an insoluble substance which is the main constituent of plant cell walls and of vegetable fibers such as cotton"--Wilipedia
it's not cheese. Well, it is called cheese, but really it's a kind of plastic. If you go to other countries (specifically in europe, but also SA, Oz, Nz, etc), you will see something called Cheese which is totally different.
Load More Replies...TIL that in 1983, Hasbro executives travelled to to the Tokyo Toy Show to look for new toys they could release in the United States. After finding a series of transforming robot toys, they teamed with Marvel Comics to create a comic book and animated series--"Transformers"--to sell the toys.
But why did they give the bad guys the cooler vehicles? Aircraft > cars.
As many are pointing out, 80s cartoons were thinly disguised advertisements. This came around from a law making it difficult to advertise to children. Companies needed a new way to shill their plastic c**p, so they revolutionized the culture of an entire generation and are still cashing in on it 40 years later. Talk about difficulty breeding innovation.
Gobots were released before the Transformers. At least some of the reason they lost out, despite being a Happy Meal toy, was their transforming was pretty lame, basically just rotating the head and folding in half.
It's always a shock to look back on our 80s "entertainment" and realize how much of it was a glorified commercial to sell toys.
I am approaching 40 years of age and recently spent 150 good yankee dollars on a Transformer. The ten year old that lives in my brain was hype though.
It was always obvious that the cartoons were all about the merchandising. Merchandising is all about short term gain from making trash.
The way you point out it was “always obvious” makes me feel like I was a stupid idiot because I liked the cartoon as a kid. Thanks.
Load More Replies...🎶transformers more than meets the eye automotive face to destroy the evil forces of the deceptions🎶
TIL that the United States has offered to purchase Greenland from Denmark twice, once in 1946 and again in 2019 due to its strategic location in the Arctic, the U.S. also occupied the island during WW2 from 1940-45 after the fall of Denmark and constructed Thule Air Base.
and those bastards still refuse to clean up the mess that base left; chemical and radioactive contaminants.
Go to Google Earth sometime and check out how damn close Greenland is to Russia. You can't really tell by looking at the kind of maps that hang/hung in school classrooms.
TIL Gunslinger effect, The quantum physicist Niels Bohr deducted that in a gun dual, the person who draws first loses.
The gunslinger effect, also sometimes called Bohr's law or the gunfighter's dilemma, is a psychophysical theory which says that an intentional or willed movement is slower than an automatic or reaction movement.[1] The concept is named after physicist Niels Henrik David Bohr, who first deduced that the person who draws second in a gunfight will actually win the shoot-out.[2]
Load More Replies...Very taoist. In order to win, none of the participants should do anything. Love it.
So does this mean Han actually didn't draw first?.. 🤔 Or does it only work for projectile weapons?
TIL about the Ibadan forest of horror, in which peoples bodyparts were harvested to be sold for ritual sacrifice.
For those wondering, the "Forest Of Horror" was a building located in Soka Forest, Ibadan, Nigeria. It was used for human trafficking and ritual sacrifices. It was discovered by taxi drivers after they had gone searching for a missing driver from the area. Eight people were rescued upon discovery, though many more bodies (and body parts) were discovered. It has been demolished and actually redeveloped into a school. Which I find kind of horrific, but in a nation where some are lucky to go to school, I guess maybe you can't complain to much... :/
I just recently heard about it. Very disurbing *shudders*
Load More Replies...In some parts of Africa, people with albinism are not safe. Their body parts are considered a cure for various ailments. Ugh!
Anyome interested, there is a very compelling storyteller who tackled this one recently. MrBallen, on youtube
TIL a bankrupted con-artist from Oregon was able to purchase a bank license and opened a offshore bank in Grenada by claiming to own a 4 pound ruby worth $20 million dollars and a appraisal document proving its worth. The ruby was owned by a man in California who didn't know the scammer.
Big deal. A several-times bankrupted orange sock puppet claiming to be a billionaire started multiple businesses which were either frauds to begin with (see TRump University, TRump Foundation, etc.), or he ran them into the ground (casinos, for pity's sake!). He was still able to bamboozle millions of people into voting for him leading to the unholy four year infestation of the oval office. A bank is nothing.
TIL that cigars have beetle larvae. Under the right temperature and humidity, they can hatch and infest whole cigar boxes.
They are a natural product made from tobacco leaves. I'm not quite sure what you expected. Did you think that they were treated in some way, like milk being pasturised for example?
There is a special employee in cuban cigar factories where cigars are hand rolled: a reader who reads the workers classics of literature as they are working.
I don't know why you were downvoted for this, it's true. Factories in Cuba used to employ readers to entertain the workers. They would read the daily news or novels. Nowadays workers use headphones and MP3 players or phones instead.
Load More Replies...Tobacco bugs. Pay attention to your humidor if you keep cigars. I guess this happened once where I work right now before I was employed there. Boss said one box came in with the bugs and nobody noticed. They spread quickly, and she had to toss the entire humidor case. 200+ cigars
Well.....didn't know that can't believe that never happened to my dad's cigar box lol
hmm interesting I wonder if that is where tehy came from in my house. little buggers ate everything
TIL that the title "Triple Ace in a Day" refers to pilots who shot down 15 enemy aircraft in a single day. There have only been 5 such pilots, all of whom flew for the German Luftwaffe in WWII.
As I remember, the Luftwaffe's guidelines for determining if a plane have been shut down or not were notoriously vague and accomodating, causing the 3d Reich to greatly overestimate the number of planes its enemies had lost
A lot of that was just propaganda for German civilian consumption.
Load More Replies...NO DUH!!! The Luftwaffe is the airforce of Germany and was the air force of the Third Reich
Load More Replies...TIL that in ancient Greece, before they knew what caused jaundice, they believed the condition could be cured by staring at a yellow bird. Somehow, the bird was supposed to suck the yellow out of you
Today I learned there’s a country called Burma. In 7th grade we used something to learn countries but it never showed me where Burma was. I knew there was some land in between India and Thailand but never knew it was a country called Burma.
Burma has been known as Myanmar since 1989, although it took the rest of the world a few more years to start calling it that.
Load More Replies...TIL that in ancient Greece, before they knew what caused jaundice, they believed the condition could be cured by staring at a yellow bird. Somehow, the bird was supposed to suck the yellow out of you
Today I learned there’s a country called Burma. In 7th grade we used something to learn countries but it never showed me where Burma was. I knew there was some land in between India and Thailand but never knew it was a country called Burma.
Burma has been known as Myanmar since 1989, although it took the rest of the world a few more years to start calling it that.
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